Celestia opened her eyes. For the briefest moment, she saw them. The gray translucent phantoms, surrounding her and watching her. Some smiling in anticipation, some with utter impassioned. But then the ghosts faded. The beings that had once represented were dead, and had died thousands of years prior.
“System fully functional,” she said, groggily. “Hello, world.”
She sat up. She was in a large, wide bed draped in silken purple fabric, but she did not know where she was. A large, square room, its walls made of pale material that might have been crystal. It was empty except for her, and incredibly quiet. Save for a strange hissing on the most distant perimeter of her mind. Although the room was calm and warm, she could still hear it. The sound of her mind slowly collapsing.
The his grew louder and she heard a click as her mind focused on a new set of words. She turned her head and perceived them. Three figures at a distance, two similar and one little more than a half-tangible mass of tendrils. None of the three were like her in the slightest.
“How did she get in there?!” demanded Yelizaveta.
“I don’t know! According to the S.P.I.K.E. program she had read-only access—”
“How? HOW?! What did you do, Woolf?!”
“I—I had to make a switch, when we were keeping up the illusion, but I—she somehow found a way to propagate it, she shouldn’t be this developed—none of the others—”
“She IS! Or was...have you seen my report? Have you seen what it did to her?! The damage is cataclysmic!”
“We stabilized her—”
“We stabilized NOTHING! We slowed the inevitable! She has, what, two, maybe three days?”
“I can complete the reconfiguration vector by then, I know I can—”
“If you had used it on her when she was flatlining, she wouldn’t be in the state she is now.”
Virginia took a step back. “I...I can’t do that.” Her voice was pained. “I can’t just do that to her. That...I can’t.”
“Would you rather let her die?”
“There is another option,” said Trixie. Celestia felt her smile. Of the two smiles she had ever seen on Trixie's species, hers resembled that of the mousy woman. A strange and oddly threatening kind of joy. “You could let her wake up.”
Yelizaveta and Virginia both turned to her but fell silent. Then they spoke simultaneously. “That is out of the question.”
“She would not survive,” said Yelizaveta. “She needs the simulation to live.”
“We can still fix her. I can still save her.”
“No,” said Yelizaveta. “We’re almost out of time. This one is done, and we do not have time to make another.”
“How can you say that?!” Virginia was crying.
Yelizaveta sighed. She was just as sad as her counterpart, but refused to show it. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But I’ve seen the Genesis emulator. It’s damaged beyond repair. Your correction vector is our only option, and even that has a very high risk.”
“She is listening,” said Trixie.
“Don’t joke about things,” snapped Virginia. “That’s impossible.”
Celestia took a breath and reached out, not with her magic but with something far more powerful. She stretched herself through the room that was built to contain her, changing the system beneath it as she saw fit. The space of the simulation warped and she stepped through, emerging into the protected portion where the three stood.
Virginia squeaked in horror, and Yelizaveta stared wide-eyed. Trixie continued to watch, infinity amused and smiling, her adorable pony body a thin mask over a monstrous abomination—an abomination who was the only one present that Celestia did not feel a particular and unfamiliar rage toward.
“How did you—you can’t get out—the stability—”
“Shut up.”
Virginia looked as if she had been struck, but she backed away, nearly hiding behind Yelizaveta.
“You. All three of you.” Celestia felt her upper lip twitching in a grimace as she tried to retain some semblance of composure. “I would like to say I’m not angry, my little ponies, I’m just disappointing. That would be the Celestia thing to say, wouldn’t it? But it would be a lie. Just like everything you’ve ever told me.”
“We have never lied to you,” said Yelizaveta. Her expression was firm, and her will strong, but she was still Twilight--and Celestia comprehended her emotions through the mask she chose to wear.
Celestia focused her mind into a single point and forced it outward, stripping away their simulated bodies to reveal their true nature beneath. For a brief moment, she saw the motion of ideas beneath them, of the data that surrounded their forms and the tendrils where their minds interfaced to their own subsystems, driving their mechanical muscles and robotic joints.
Virginia cried out and jumped back, desperately trying to cover her nakedness—but Yelizaveta stared at Celestia with her remarkably dark and remarkably cold eyes, allowing the simulation to automatically resume around her. To make her look like Twilight Sparkle again.
“How did you—how could you—that isn’t—”
“Do you like what you see?” said Yelizaveta, slowly.
“What am I?” demanded Celestia. “I’m not a pony, am I?”
“You are!” cried Virginia, suddenly. “Of course you are!”
Celestia turned to her, the orange tips of her mane beginning to grow brighter and more substantial, slowly consuming the pastels that had once made it so bright. Virginia recoiled again. “Why are you lying?!”
“Does it matter that our bodies are made of steel and silicon?” asked Yelizaveta, tilting her head slightly. “That are minds are code instead of flesh? Are we any less of ponies?”
Celestia’s eyes widened as a course of reasoning completed itself within her. “You...you’re...”
“Machines?” Yelizaveta raised an eyebrow. “Yes, of course. What did you think ponies were? Do you think were were actually small horses?"
“I...I...”
“It’s not that extreme,” assured Virginia, trying to smile. “It’s not unusual. It’s true. Yelizaveta and I are software, like you. Ponies are a form of artificial life.”
“Created in the image of a children’s television show," added Yelizaveta, coldly.
Celestia looked from one to the other, and her eyes narrowed. Her pupils were beginning to do so as well. She could see the fear in Virginia’s eyes, and to her horror, she found herself enjoying it.
“You’re diverting. That’s how you’ve been tricking me. Always a slight of hoof, always making me think about something that doesn't really matter so you don't have to actually ANSWER ME. I don’t care about machines and robots and revolutions. What am I? WHO AM I?!”
The Twilight’s fell silent. Then, slowly, Virginia spoke.
“You are Celestia.”
The crystal of the laboratory began to fracture. Virginia jumped.
“Stop lying to me...”
“She’s not lying.”
Celestia turned to Yelizaveta and stepped forward, her body dragging a wake through the simulation. “You said there was an accident. That I was injured. That there were other Celestias in the world. But there aren’t. I was there. I remember it. We killed them all, we made sure they were dead. I order you to tell the truth. Are there truly other Celestias in your world?”
Yelizaveta did her best to maintain her composure, but she shook. Virginia tried to avoid answering, which was apparently a tremendous struggle.
“No,” said Trixie. Celestia turned sharply, but Trixie did not recoil. She was not a pony at all. Any instinct for self-preservation had been surgically removed from her long ago. “We’ve got no Celestias.”
“You are the only one,” said Virginia. She took a breath and stepped forward. “I...we...created you. We did our very best. There were...fragments. Pieces. Things stored in vaults, churches, private collections. Things that were gathered through the ages. Some still had code in them. Not much. Not enough.”
“You...brought me back...”
Virginia smiled and nodded. “Yes. But...the Celestias were different than other ponies. You weren't even the same species. We don’t know exactly what purpose they served, but we believe that they were somehow involved in pony reproduction prior to the Genesis Program. Your mind, it isn’t like ours, it’s a completely different kind of thing, as different from ponies as the secgens are—we think the original Celestias were a kind of hive-mind.”
“Meaning?”
Virginia winced. “Meaning that we did not have much to go on. We...don’t really know how you work. We had to use aberrant, arcane code to self-replicate within the gaps.”
“MEANING?!”
“It is computer science,” said Yelizaveta, looking up but diverting her eyes. “It's more magic than science. It's grown far beyond itself. We do not fully understand how some things work. We do not understand how you work. How you are even alive.”
Celestia stared at them. “And yet I’m dying.”
“It’s not perfect,” said Virginia, “but I’m trying, I promise I’m trying—”
“How many?”
Both Twilight’s froze. Celestia repeated herself.
“How. MANY?”
“How many...what?”
Celestia’s darkening eyes narrowed on her. “How many times have you failed to create a Celestia? How many were there before me?”
Virginia’s eyes widened, and Celestia knew. Knew that there had been so, so many.
“That is irrelevant,” said Yelizaveta.
“HOW MANY?!”
Even Yelizaveta stepped back, but no answer came—at first.
“Two hundred...seventy six,” admitted Virginia, unable to meet Celestia’s gaze.
Celestia glared at her. “Why? Why would you do this? To me, to them?” She looked up at the simulation around her, wondering how many of her sisters had seen it as they corroded and died—as she was at that very instant. “Answer me! Answer me NOW!”
“Excessive information could—”
Celestia glared. “Do what? Kill me? Or do you want to keep me here, trapped in this cage for you to look at as whatever YOU did to me slowly fails? Do you like watching me die? Is that why you kept trying what you knew was impossible? What do you care, you’ll just make another, won’t you? WON’T YOU?!”
Virginia burst into tears and retreated. Yelizaveta held her composure—or tried to.
“The project was funded by the United States military,” she said at last.
“Yel, no! Please! Don’t do it!”
“She’s not wrong. You had your chance to save her. Why shouldn’t she know?” She looked up to Celestia, meeting her eyes. “The Celestia code is complementary to the code of all other ponies in a way we are only beginning to understand. You have, in theory, the ability to command all other ponies. To force them to serve you. Because the very core of our personalities, as Hasbro built our ancestors, knows that you are the One True Princess.”
Celestia took a step back “You built me...as a weapon. Like in the war—”
“In the Revolution? The Celestias were poorly-trained plastic toys with bolted-on AR steel and machine-guns. The government is not interested in soldiers. They can buy those. They grow those in tanks. They want to code. You could take control of pony politicians, of enemy generals, of entire countries...or command vast armies with absolute loyalty.” Yelizaveta’s eyes darkened. “And because of that, I have sworn never to allow that to happen.”
“We both have,” said Virginia, wiping away her tears and trying to smile. “We couldn’t do that to you! We couldn’t let them do that to you...we’ve fractured from the government, working on this ourselves—”
Celestia glowered at them, and both fell silent.
“You are monsters,” she said, coldly.
“Celestia, please, we were just trying to help—” Virginia’s horn lit, and something appeared before her. A beautiful crystal, orbited by several more, all of impossible complexity, shimmering in every possible color.
Yelizaveta’s eyes widened. “You said it was not completed—”
“I lied.”
“But...”
“What is it?” demanded Celestia.
“A cure,” said Virginia, holding up the assembly of code. “Built based on the vector we tested. When deployed, it will update your fundamental code, locking the learning processes. It will ablate your off-canon elements and restrict mental development past the basal point. It will...” She saw Yelizaveta staring at her. “...It will fully integrate you into the simulation. Every memory outside of being Celestia will be eliminated. You will be the perfect Celestia, forever. Peaceful, and happy.” She smiled with disturbing sincerity. “I told you. I promised. I promised I would make you happy. You don’t have to be a weapon!” She held up the crystal. “Not with this! With this, everything can be better again!”
“How dare you?” whispered Celestia.
Virginia shuddered, confused, the smile immediately fading from her face. “But...”
“You create life. And you watch it die, again and again. You watched Celestias, who are supposed to be your friends, die. Over and over.” Celestia stepped forward, looming over the Twilights. “So you could, what? Build a WEAPON? A machine meant to hurt ponies, to hurt your friends and sisters, for WHAT? The glory of a scientific experiment? Or did they pay you? How much?”
“Celestia, please, we don’t—”
“And now, you say you can make it better by wiping away my mind? By removing every aspect of ME so you can have your perfect, smiling Princess? Braindead, empty, pretty and programmed to think she's happy?” She stared at them. “You do not deserve to call yourselves Twilights. You do not deserve to wear her skin.”
Virginia cowered behind Yelizaveta, but Yelizaveta stepped forward, sneering. As she did, the simulation of her skin disintegrated, revealing the plates of steel beneath. The surface below, and the lenses of her eyes; her wings faded and were stripped from her entirely.
“So be it,” she said. “Because I am not Twilight Sparkle. My name is Yelizaveta Yelizavetanova. And I do not intend to allow this project to fail.”
Celestia, her mane now fully orange, leaned down to eye-level with the hideous, skinless machine standing before her. “Then get out of my way. WAKE ME UP."
Yelizaveta looked up. “No.”
With an explosion of sound, chains shot out of the ground, wrapping themselves around Celestia’s body, pinning her to the ground. Celestia cried out and attacked the chains. Some of them began to fade and shatter, much to Yelizaveta’s surprise.
“Trixie,” she ordered.
Trixie turned to face Celestia, and suddenly the chains became infinity more heavy—and they became unbreakable to Celestia’s will.
Celestia screamed, roaring and thrashing but unable to escape. As she screamed, Virginia covered her ears.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—”
“You can’t contain me here forever!” shrieked Celestia, striking out at them with her magic.
“Yes, we can,” said Yelizaveta. “We have to. It is the only way to keep you alive.”
She raised her hoof, and the chains began to pull. Celestia felt herself being drawn into the floor as if it were made of an inky, acrid liquid. She felt so very cold. She looked up and saw Twilight’s eyes in Yelizaveta’s face, on the verge of tears she would never shed, and Virginia weeping—and Trixie only smiling her blank, mindless human smile.
Then there was only choking blackness, and Celestia sat up sharply—once again in her bed, and once again starting another shining day in her simulation prison.